Jethro Tull - "M.U.: The Best of Jethro Tull" (1976)

I am not really a fan of greatest hits compilations, much like how I am not really a fan of soundtracks. Obviously, it depends on how the compilation was put together, but for the large part, I find that greatest hits albums actually work better for mediocre artists. For example, I'm not sure you really need more Madonna than her Immaculate Collection. But for a band with grander ambitions like Jethro Tull, an 11-song greatest hits compilation doesn't fully do them justice. After all, if you're into Tull, you really need to pick up Thick as a Brick, their 'one-song' conceptual masterpiece, or Aqualung. And if an early 70s progressive/hard rock album with lots of flute solos sounds abysmal to you, you probably don't need their greatest hits collection.

Still, I would be hard-pressed to deny that there is a lot of good music on this album. Tull's mix of gruff hard rock riffs, progressive song structures, flute, and the kindly old hermit voice of Ian Anderson are nothing if not unique. Undoubtedly, the mixture sounds a bit dated today, if only because progressive rock was deemed uncool, so not a lot of modern bands have attempted to follow in Tull's footsteps. But though I wouldn't go so far as to worship Jethro Tull, and they indeed have some horrid misfires in their discography (I unfortunately own their truly awful mid 80s monster Under Wraps), their best albums feature excellent songwriting from Anderson and guitar from Martin Barre while providing a sound that is rather unique to Tull. So until I pick up Aqualung and Stand Up on LP, I will keep this record. But really, you should get the albums.

The Guess Who - "The Best of the Guess Who"

Songwriting is important. That may be trite, but I am a firm believer in the theory that mediocre songwriters don't just wake up one morning and write "Yesterday." Great songs (and great albums) rarely just come out of nowhere. Part of the fun of listening to all the random LPs I own is listening to the albums where there are multiple songwriters on one record, and hearing how the song quality shifts accordingly. For example, before starting this blog (but following the same precepts), I listened to Huey Lewis and the News' Picture This, which I pretty much hated, except that it contained one of the most infectious pop singles of the 80s in "Do You Believe in Love?" I was baffled, because this one song was on a completely different level from literally every other song on both that album and the other Huey Lewis album I own. Then I read the songwriting credits and discovered that it was also the only song on either album that was written by producer Mutt Lange and not by Lewis or one of the other regular band members. In the end, all was right with the world, and I made a mental note to check out other music Lange had made on his own.

I had one of those 'aha' moments with this compilation of Canadian rock band The Guess Who, as nearly every song on the first side was written or co-written by guitarist Randy Bachman, whereas he wasn't credited at all on the second side. And indeed the first side is phenomenal, which made me wonder if The Guess Who were a seriously underrated band, but the second side is just not as good, despite possessing superficially similar elements. 

I call this a controlled musical science experiment, and my conclusion is that Bachman was a damn good songwriter, at least in the late 60s. The group's most famous singles are "American Woman" and "These Eyes" and those are definitely good, but really everything on the first side is great, and surprisingly diverse, as they draw on elements of soul (thanks to lead singer Burton Cummings' quavering tenor), jazz, and rock. What is odd to me in this case is that Bachman later went on to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive, which I know only for the execrable single "Takin' Care of Business." So maybe it's time to reassess the work of BTO, but regardless, Bachman was on his game in the late 60s.

Weather Report - "Tale Spinnin" (1975)

Well, my random number generator pulled up another Weather Report album for the second time in five nights. In case anyone was dying to know the method behind my madness of how I choose records, I typed up all the LPs I haven't listened to in a spreadsheet, then use OpenOffice's random number generator to choose them. I have to say, it makes me feel pretty awesome. But given my limited jazz vocabulary, I don't know that I have a lot new to say about this Weather Report record that I didn't say about the other one that I reviewed. So it goes sometimes. This is more jazz-fusion in a similar vein to Mysterious Traveller, with more orchestration and ambience and less of a late-night KWUR feel. But even if I don't have a lot to say about it, if you have any interest in this kind of music at all, this is another solid one to pick up. I like music that has ambition and travels to unexpected places, and like its predecessor, this one does that too. In conclusion, I am all for this Weather Report business. Thumbs up and all that jazz.

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band - "Original Soundtrack (Eddie and the Cruisers)" (1983)

As someone who prefers to listen to albums rather than individual songs, and someone who likes to delve deep into the unsavory depths of many a mediocre band's discography, I have something of an aversion to soundtrack albums. Even when they're good, I find myself wondering what the point really is. Fortunately, the soundtrack to the now-forgotten 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers is essentially just an album, one recorded by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. So at least for my reviewing purposes, that makes it the good kind of soundtrack. Unfortunately, it's not that good of a record.

Perhaps not surprisingly for a film titled "Eddie and the Cruisers" and a record cover featuring a young tough with slicked-back hair, Cafferty and his band adopt a sound that is indeed an ode to late 50s rock. Especially in the early 80s, this could have turned out terribly, but they relatively do justice to the sound, and show at least some sense of innovation by attempting to unify 50s rock with Bruce Springsteen. That said, the band's Springsteenisms are so overt that you can barely tell the difference between tracks like "On the Dark Side" and "Tender Years" vs. "Thunder Road." This is impressive in a sense, but I think "Thunder Road" is kind of overrated anyways, so "Tender Years" doesn't exactly get me excited. Weirdly, the band actually fares better with slower 50s-style material like "These Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me of You)" but come off rather flaccid when they go up-tempo. Overall, this is not an uninteresting record, and there a couple songs that I like, but ultimately too much that I dislike. Blue bin!

Judy Collins - "Living" (1971)

Sometimes it's just hard to get excited about yet another 70s singer-songwriter whose music is perfectly adequate but at the same time not exciting or rousing in any way. So I'll keep this one brief. Judy Collins' Living is actually a live recording of her performing 10 songs, mostly covers by songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. My girlfriend hated her vocal style but after listening to enough Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones records, I have at least gotten acclimated to that sort of thing. What I can't get acclimated to is the fact that most of the arrangements here are very quiet, forcing the listener to rely solely on Collins' singing as the means of enjoyment. Well, I find her singing okay but not great, and most of the songs are slow and not particularly memorable. I wouldn't say there is anything bad here, so it probably could be recommended at some level. Collins definitely has some artsy leanings and a number of the songs she covers are definitely good songs (examples: Cohen's "Joan of Arc," Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" and Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"). But for me, the original versions are better, and I don't see myself wanting to return to this record again. 

Sade - "Promise" (1985)

Sade's Promise is proof that any genre has decent music floating around somewhere. From my vast musical readings, I infer that this eponymous singer is the mother of adult contemporary. And indeed, Promise has that familiar sound of late nights with Delilah on the radio down pat. Smooth saxophones, quiet arrangements with quiet drums, this is all music designed for a certain audience which I normally can't identify with. 

Still, I can't deny that this record has Phil Collins beat any way you look at it. The music is classy and professional rather than sappy and generic. Sade is one of those singers like Nico from the Velvet Underground who is intentionally rather non-emotive - in this context, smooth (operator); but to my ears, that gives the whole project much more street cred. She lets the natural timbres of her voice stand out. The saxophone playing of Stuart Matthewman is actually good and there are some fine bass lines to be found as well. Plus, opening track "Isn't It a Crime" is downright great, perhaps because it makes so much use of dynamics and hooks that it can hardly be called adult contemporary. 

The downside of this record is that although it all sounds good and consistently conjures up that late-night smoky atmosphere, most of the songs are lacking in vocal hooks and go on for five minutes or more even though all the musical themes are established in the first three. So really, it is probably better served as background listening than anything else. For that reason, I might rate it lower if I had heard the purportedly superior Diamond Life first (although I own that one too!), but maybe it's better to have started with the weaker album so I can be that much more impressed by the real thing. At any rate, a definite keeper.

Weather Report - "Mysterious Traveller" (1974)

Weather Report's 1974 release Mysterious Traveller is some serious rock-jazz fusion. I know when I hear the term 'fusion', I think of something more rock-oriented than what this music is, so let me dispel the myth. I would label this music 'rock-jazz' rather than 'jazz-rock', as it is much more ambient and free-flowing than rocking. But there are keyboards, funky electric bass, and rocking guitar licks, so rock and funk elements are definitely there - this just happens to be jazz music with rock elements added in, as opposed to the other way around. What all this is to say is that if you don't like or don't know jazz, I wouldn't recommend trying to get into Weather Report just because they have rock elements. What Weather Report is commendable for is their dark, psychedelic soundscapes and atmospheric keyboard playing by Joe Zawinul. This is definitely exploratory, late night music that made me think of sitting in my college radio station listening to random music at 3 in the morning. Overall, I found it compelling and definitely different, so if you are a jazz or fusion fan and haven't heard Weather Report, I would recommend this record.